Holy She Crab! Whole Fresh Crab Soup Dumplings

I know you hear constantly about Koi Palace, but news of their whole crab shanghai dumplings had me crawling under my writing desk and crying with need. They take an entire dungeness crab, pick out all the meat, and stuff it all into xiao long bau, a.k.a. soup dumplings, except there’s no soup inside–only the sweet, steamed juices of the crab. You also get the legs and claws, served deep fried. These pure crabmeat dumplings, with their thin, chewy skin and succulent meat, are even better than Koi’s whole lobster dumplings, says Porthos. Twenty-eight bucks gets you 10 or 11 dumplings, plus the rest of the crab.